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Topic: TRU - 4pks (Read 1496 times)

I think that we will definitely be seeing more of these sometime down the road... despite the terrible selection of rehashes they put in most of these, all the TRU's in my area are sold out of most of them... just a few of the Skiff Guard sets hanging around I think. So surprising that people actually bought the Jedi 4-pk...

Anyways, anyone still seeing the Kaadu 4-pk? That seemed to be the hottest one in my area since the Imperial Forces one. That Kaadu looked great, and it came with quite a few good army-builders, as well as the hard to find Naboo red guard dude.

Think we'll see more? Want to see more? I think we will, but don't know how much I want to see more... only if they come up with some really good ideas, like my ideas!!! With sometimes a new figure in there to spice things up, but a lot of these could be well done kit bashes and rehashes of rarer figures.

-Clone Army Builders... Overpriced and defeats the "point" behind army building. Beyond that, great concept.

-4-packs... Poor figure choices hampered an otherwise awesome idea. You sneak in SLIGHTLY new toolings here and there (new pair of arms, or a new torso... not a new figure, just a new part here and there like some figures seemed to get), and the idea's more sound right away. Just make right decisions...

I mean, imagine a Jabba's Palace set... Ephant's the "big" piece in the set, there's a Ree Yees figure in there, a repaint of Yak Face, maybe a new body for some reused arms/legs/head to make a Weequay Skiff Master, or whatever...

-Screen Scenes... Great concept if you're packing in new figures within a mini diorama or "big" accessory piece... Even army builders and semi-new figures or kitbashes would be better.

For instance, an Endor "briefing" set... Include a kitbashed Endor soldier, a Rebel Pilot repaint (new head would be neat, or reuse a "generic" head), and maybe a new or semi-new figure (Dressellian COmmando WITHOUT eyepatch would rock).

The idea's sound, the price is about right, the execution sucked... At least on these later ones.

Point: we never got the Imperial forces four pack. Dumb. Anything with a Vader sells, throw in a "new" astromech and two army builders - well duh.

Point: Bounty hunters sold well. Why? Boba Fett - 300th. That works. Throw in a "neat" bike and well, and. Um, ok that's it. The rest of the pack was ****. Aurra Sing clearanced at $1 up here at Walmart. I see the point of Hasbro putting her in, given they shipped all Aurra figs north of the border, but Bossk? Old Bossk, new Bossk and oh look, let's release it again on yet another cardback

Point: Hoth four pack sold well. Most of it not too exciting, but a different Tauntaun and that's cool. Throw in a "new" astromech and you're doing ok. Should have had a snowtrooper in there.

Point: Carkoon was marginal, but at least the figures weren't still widely available. The Han was quasi unique, the skiff guards for Canadians may have been new, the Cinema Scene 3 packs weren't widely distributed up here. The gun was a boring major accessory, most people picked up the deluxe Leia not so long ago (though it was never available in Canada at regular retail either ). End result was moderate to good sales, but I can still find these today.

Point: Jedi 4 pack was awful, just awful. $40 for this (oh, I didn't mention the Canadian retail price? yes, that is the price fourty ******* dollars). Most if not all of the figures were still on TRU's pegs (at full price) when this set arrived. If they sold one locally, I'd be surprised.

Add the last two four packs relative success and you end up with....

Point: Kaadu 4-pack never showed up here at retail. Not that I would have bought it, I have a serious Ep I mental block going on and don't own any Ep I beasts anyway, but I bet it would have sold well.

Anyhoo, I'd be surprised to see TRU jump on board again up here. They never clearance and the shelves are plugged with crap. They're a neat idea, when well executed but I've only bought have of them and should have skipped a couple of those anyway.

When thinking of these ideas, you have to look at them from Hasbro Direct's point of view of doing as little work as possible to develop these, i.e. minimize the amount of new toolings needed to make new pieces. That's the story behind the TRU 4-packs and any future sets would be just the same. But the idea could still work, if the choice in previously produced pieces used for the 4-packs were sound. A good example would be the Bounty Hunter 4-pack. That set had the 300th Fett, POTF2 Bossk, POTJ IG-88, POTJ Aurra-Sing, and a kit-bashed SOTE Swoop. All sound choices, except the Bossk. Why you ask? Well when that set was being developed, no doubt work was being done on the Saga Bossk resculpt. So why issue two figures within a year of each other, you potentially hurt the sales of the figure released later on. A good replacement for Bossk would have been Zuckuss, a neat looking alien figure which was hard to find during its initial release. The problem is with HD's limited thinking, something which Hasbro is very at fault with as noted by their latest earnings press release.....

"....increases the risk of underproduction of popular items, overproduction of less popular items..."